Dear Dholavira,

My father used to tell me that he works in one of the most deserted part of India; where he sometimes used to wonder how life can survive when nature itself can be so tyrant. One day he called me excitedly and asked me to come to Kutch. I have never heard him sound so excited and hence I took a train and arrived at his place. He asked me to get up early in morning. We woke up around 5 and I asked him where we are going from the back seat. He was sitting with a driver. He looked back and replied, “Dholaveera, imagine extension of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro.”

We arrived at your bosom in the afternoon. At first sight everything what I have heard about the great ancient mega polis seemed true. One of the architects told us that only 30% of you has been dug. You still didn’t seem old. You seemed to be a young vibrant city with whispers of the past. In scorching heat, I could not imagine that you used to be so fertile. I sat down on the banks of river which is only desert now and saw the city. The sewage canals, the bathrooms, the water tanks are something I observed the most. What if you time travelled and came to the future? Would you feel we are very modern? With so many people living without a sewage system and without water to drink?

They say that engravings found from your chest could not be deciphered. It is a mystery. I find the fact that you are still here is a mystery. After 1000 years will the generations ahead of us remember Mahatma or Lincoln? How far and how behind is history? How far can we go behind to see the future?

I saw the broken pots and other remains of you. If today there was an earthquake or flood or tsunami in our country, ten thousand years from now if they found remains of our country they will still find pots and utensils from slums? The idols of God and of politicians. Will they know that these politicians are not God?

The past seems so tantalizing and alluring than the future. Maybe because we don’t know what will happen in future. The past is already done and we are still clueless as to how we arrived at this stage of humanity.